Method of manufacturing electric



Jan. 28, 1941. E. s. FLYNN 2,229,967

METHOD OF MANUFACTURING ELECTRIC CABLE b APPLICATION OF TEMPORARY 6 BITUMINOUS SHEATH 7 h APPLICATION OF PERMANENT SHEATH Fig. I

PERMANENT SHEATH TEMPORARY BITUMINOUS SHEATH IMPREGNATED INSULATION CONDUCTOR INVENTOR ED A FLYNN Jan. 28, 1941. v E s FLYNN 2,229,967

METHOD OF MANUFACTURING ELECTRIC CABLE Filed July 20, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 I20 TEMPERATURE- DEGREES FAHRENHEII' FIG 3 0 8 O O O O INVENTOR EDWARD S. F YN BY @QMJU ATTORNEY o o o o o GNOOBS 'IVSHBAINO .L'IQBAVS -AJ.ISOOSIA Patented Jan. 28, 1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE METHOD OF MANUFACTURING ELECTRIC CABLE Edward S. Flynn, Hastings on Hudson, N. Y., as-

signor to Anaconda Wire & Cable Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Application July 20,1939, Serial No. 285,478 3 Claims. (01. 173-244 This invention relates to cables of the type able compounds for use with the cable of this which comprise of one or more metallic coninvention. ductors insulated with numerous layers of paper Referring to Figure 1, the first step in the manor similar fibrous material which have been imufacture of a cable in accordance with the prespregnated with a suitable liquid dielectric and enent invention is to strand a group of bare wires closed within an outer impervious sheath. Catogether to form a conductor of the required curbles insulated in this fashion -may be roughly rent carrying capacity. Over this conductor are divided into two arbitrary groupings, the solid, applied successive wrapplngs of paper tape until or hard compound cable and the oil-filled type. a wall of the necessary thickness to provide the The distinction between these two grades depends required dielectric strength is built up, an opera- 10 largely upon the viscosity of the liquid dielectric tion which is indicated as step 2. Since the employed for impregnation; the oil-filled cable paper when applied normally contains from five having a saturant of relatively high mobility at to eight percent weight of moisture which has normal temperatures, possesses certain theoretibeen absorbed from the atmosphere, it is necescal advantages due to the fact that the impregsary to treat the taped conductor to remove the 15 nating compound is free to fiow within the cable moisture so that the impregnation with a fluid at all times and thus fill any voids which may dielectric that is incompatible with water will be have been formed in the fibrous insulation during substantially complete. The drying step 3 is most operation. conveniently accomplished by circulating warm The inherent difficulties attending the manuair about the paper and the tapes may be regard- 20 facture of a cable which employs a liquid saturant ed as completely dry when the electrical characof low viscosity has proved to be a severe obstacle teristics, for example the power factor, capacito the adoption of this construction by the trade. tance and insulation resistance of the paper All methods heretofore proposed for impregnareach a satisfactory predetermined point. It is tion have involved operations which require very usual to connect test leads to the cable during fine control, as well as a large amount of addidrying so that the readings may be taken at fretional equipment. The difficulty is occasioned by quent intervals without interrupting the process. the fact that oil possessing ahigh degree of fiuidi- The oil or other liquid dielectric which is to be ty will drain out of the paper surrounding the used for impregnation is also treated as indicated conductor before it is possible to form a liquidin step 4 before it is brought ln-contact with the 30 tight sheath about the paper. To overcome this paper, since it is essential that moisture and any difiiculty it has been suggested that the paper included gases be removed prior to impregnashould be impregnated after the lead sheath is tion.

applied, a method which presents practical dif- There are several satisfactory methods of carficulties and requires a long period for complete rying out step 5, the impregnation of the paper 35 saturation. with the liquid compound. In a typical process,

It is the chief object of the present invention the taped contactor is placed within a gas tight to provide a method whereby the cable can be tank and subjected to a vacuum. Heat is also apimpregnated with an extremely fluid liquid diplied and an elevated temperature is maintained electric, prior to the time that the permanent outfor approximately forty-eight hours. When this 40 er sheath is applied without loss of oil from the treatment has been continued for a considerable fibrous insulation. Further objects of the invenperiod of time it will be found that there is only tion will be apparent from the following detailed a slight rise in pressure within the tank when description when read in connection with the acthe pumps are shut off and all openings are companying drawings in which similar reference sealed. This of course indicates that there is 45 numerals denote similar parts and in which: little gas remaining within the paper and in the Figure 1 illustrates diagrammatically the variinterstices of the cable which raises the presous steps in the manufacture of a cable'in acsure within the chamber by diffusion. The pacordance with the present invention. per may be considered ready for impregnation Figure 2 is a perspective view of a cable made when the pressure within the tank does not rise 50 in accordance with the present invention, certain more than 300 microns when the pumps are shut parts having been broken away to reveal its conoff. At this point the previously prepared satstruction. urant is admitted to the tank and pressure is ap- Figure 3 is a chart of viscosity against temperaplied to force the liquid into the voids between ture, indicating the characteristics of certain suitthe tapes and within the paper itself. During the 55 period of approximately twelve hours in which pressure is applied to the oil an elevated temperature is maintained so that the oil will be rendered less viscous and will more readily penetrate the fibrous layers. Atthe expiration of this time, the pressure is lowered to atmospheric and the heat is removed so that the taped conductor and its surrounding bath of oil will reach room temperature. I

The next step in the manufacture of the cable would normally be to withdraw the impregnated insulated conductors from the bath of oil and apply a lead sheath. However, if the viscosity of the oil used is relatively low it will be found that a considerable portion of the liquid will drain out of the cable during the interval that passes between the time the cable is taken from the impregnating tank and the time a lead sheath has been applied, and one of the chief purposes of this invention is to prevent the loss of thin .oil from the paper wrappings. This is accomplished by the .application of a temporary sheath of bituminous material to the outside of the cable, the characteristics of which will be discussed in detail, but primarily the compound of which it is made must be compatible with the impregnating compound within the cable so that when the tempor'ary sheath melts and blends with the" impre'gnated compound during operation of the cable the electrical character-tistics of the cable will not be adversely afiected. It has been found that the temporary bituminous sheath may be applied by drawing the impregnated paper wrapped conductors through a bath of molten compound immediately after the surface of the paper has been wiped free of excess material and equally good results have been obtained when the compound is melted and sprayed upon the surface.

In either event the result is to form the sheath of solid bituminous material on the surface of the impregnated cable and while this sheath has, of course, very low strength it is sufliciently coherent to retain the impregnating oi-l within the cable until a permanent outer sheath, whether of lead or resinous material, is applied. It may be noted at this point that the high melting compound which is used for the temporary sheath is in no sense an impregnating compound but merely lays on the surface of the outer tapes which have been previously saturated with liquid of low viscosity.

A cable made in this manner is illustrated in Figure 2 in which the conductor 8 is surrounded by wrappings of paper 9 which are impregnated with a. fluid dielectric of low viscosity. The temporary bituminous sheath w of high melting compound is applied over .the impregnated paper, and this in turn may be enclosed by a permanent sheath II of, resin or metal. Of course if consid erable heat is used in applying the permanent outer sheath, the temporary sheath beneath it will be melted and probably considerably dispersed into the thinner impregnating compound, so that the completed cable will not have a distinct temporary sheath as indicated in the drawing. However, the loss of the temporary sheath under these conditions is a matter of no concern as the outer sheath 'is applied immediately thereafter.

The general characteristics of suitable compounds for use. in manufacturing the cable in accordance with the present invention are indicated on the chart shown as Figure 3. Curve 112 indicates the variations in viscosity of the pure impregnating oil-and it will be seen that the ratic of temperature to viscosity in this case is practically a straight line. In order to decrease the rate of change of viscosity, various resins and compounds may be added to the oil. Such a curve is indicated as 13 in which the impregnating oil has been blended with two per cent of a material marketed under the trade name Vistanex, which is prepared by polymerizing unsaturated gaseous hydrocarbons with metallic halides to give substantially linear polymers ranging in consistency from that of a viscous oil to rubbery materials having molecular weights as high as 300,000.

The particular resin which was used in this case, had a molecular weight of approximately 50,000 and is of the type disclosed in United States Patent #2,084,501 issued June 22, 1937 to Michael Otto & Martin Mueller-Cunradi and also in United States Patent #2,130,507 issued- Sept. 20, 1938 to the same inventors. It will be seen that the effect of the addition of 2% of Vistanex is to decrease the rate of change of viscosity to temperature but the values when plotted still form a straight line. This effect is even more marked in the curve indicated as M in which 5% of Vistanex has been added to the impregnating oil. When a small percentage of high melting wax, that is, a parafiin wax whose melting point is approximately 72 0., is added to these compounds a change is seen in the relation of viscosity to temperature, as may beseen by comparing curves l3 and 95. With the addition of wax there is a sudden break in the viscosity of the compound corresponding to the melting point of the compound and then, after some time, the rate of change in viscosity changes and the curve after this point closely parallels the mixtures of oil and Vistanex with the wax. In other words, the addition of wax results in an enormous change in viscosity in a short temperature range. The curve i6 shows the effect of adding 20% of high melting point wax to the compound indicated by curve M. will be seen that the increased quantity of Vistanex tends to shift the entire curve to the right, raising the melting point and increasing the viscosity of the compound. The purpose of these curves is .to contrast the eiTect of temperature on the compounds adapted for impregnation, I2, l3,

and I4, and the materials designed for sheathing Saybolt Universal viscositics (-urve 120 C. 100 C. C. 60 C.

12 impregnating oil 60 94 205 550 13 Impregnat'mg 011 plus 2% Vistanex 340 600 i. 400 3, 500 14 Impregnating oil plus 5% Vistancx 3, 000 6, 000 14, 000 30, G00 15 impregnating oil plus 2% Vistanex plus 20% wax 220 380 750 1,600 16 Impregnating 011 plus 5% Vistanex plus 20% wax... 500 l, 000 Solid Solid In general the electrical characteristics of the impregnating oil are improved by the addition of Vistanex and waxes as are indicated in the following table in which it will be seen that while the initial electrical characteristics of the blends may be less than those of the pure oil, the rate characterized by its ability to withstand the electrical and mechanical stresses incident to operation, and finally dispersing said thermoplastic material through the oil-impregnated insulation by the heat released during operation of the cable.

2. The method of manufacturing an oil-impregnated cable which comprises the steps of of depreciation on aging is much less rapid.

One minute resistivity at 85 0. Power factor-85 C.

- Aged 10 Initial Curve 7 Initial 3. g days Megaxlo cm. megshxm, k 20 20 5o v./m. v./m. v./m v./m.

Per- Per- Par- Percent cent cc'nt cent 12 Impregnating oil 216 22 l5 58 13 Impregnating oil plus 2% Vistanex 95. l 27. 2 38 78 14 Impregnating oil plus 5% Yistanex 54. 2 19. 4 401 .439 869 991 15 Impregnating oil plus 2% Vistanex plus a wax 42 28.2 .36 .42 .42 .64 16 Impregnating 01] plus 5% vistanex plus 20% wax 34- 8.05 .56 1.05

From the above electrical characteristics it will be seen that the quantity of the cable will not be impaired if the compound Iorming the temporary sheath should blend with the impreg ating compound. Hence there is no necessity of employing a separating layer of oil impervious material between the two compounds.

While certain specific compounds have been described as desirable for use in the temporary bituminous sheath it will be apparent that any compound which possesses the necessary melting point, coherence and electrical characterisitcs will be satisfactory for the purpose.

What I claim is:

1. The method of manufacturing oil-impregnated cable which comprises thesteps of sheathing the oil-impregnated insulation of the cable with a viscid bituminous thermoplastic material which is unsuitable for use during operation, subsequently applying a superimposed sheath coating the impregnated insulation with a sheath of bituminous material compatible with the impregnating compound and which has a melting point above room temperature, superimposing a metallic sheath on the sheath of bituminous material and finally destroying the continuity of the sheath of bituminous material by the heat incident to the operation of the cable.

3. The method of manufacturing an oil -impregnated cable which comprises the steps of coating the impregnated insulation with a sheath of bituminous material which has a melting point above normal room temperature and which is compatible with the impregnating compound, superimposing an outer sheath and finally dispersing the bituminous material of which the sheath is formed into the impregnated insulation during operation of the cable.

EDWARD S. FLYNN. 

